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Reading While White has a terrific interview with professor and blogger Laura Jimenez about her critical work on graphic novels, YA literature, and issues of diversity and representation. Design of the Picture Book analyzes Radiant Child, my favorite nonfiction picture book of 2016. What happens when an English teacher reads and love a new YA…

Betsy Bird’s 31 book lists to round out 2016 have caused my own TBR list to explode. Be sure to check out her list of Best Picture Books of 2016. Just in case you don’t have quite enough reading to do, Carrie Gelson’s list of 16 Favorites from 2016 is full of wonderful titles. And…

I am so excited about Teen Librarian Toolbox’s theme for 2017: Social Justice! Check out the social justice themed book display they created with no slogans or headings to announce the topic. College basketball player Bronson Koenig, one of just 40 Native American students playing basketball at D-1 colleges, reported from Standing Rock earlier in…

I’m still putting together my own learning reflections from #NCTE16. Here are other learning reflection posts I’ve enjoyed this week. Inspired by their thinking and learning at #NCTE16, Three Teachers Talk plans to focus their blogging on the four key elements teachers need to make decisions about learning in their classrooms. (I’m also feeling demoralized about…

Jacqueline Woodson shares her answer to the question I keep asking myself, How Do I Comfort My Frightened Son After the Election? Liel Leibovitz urges us to take Trump at face value and assume the worst, as his grandfather did about Hitler in 1930s Vienna: “Refuse to accept what’s going on as the new normal.…

David Remnick’s powerful New Yorker piece, An American Tragedy, considers the full implications of a Trump presidency: “this is surely the way fascism can begin.” John Pavlovitz explains why so many of us are grieving: “It isn’t a political defeat we’re lamenting, it’s a defeat for Humanity.” Jess Lifshitz movingly explores what is at stake for…

I’ve been working my way through the archives of my favorite podcast, Radiolab. This week, my favorite episode was Speedy Beet, about how Beethoven may have intended his symphonies to be played: fast. Very fast. SLJ does some research into banned books and discovers one thing they have in common: many of them feature diverse…